Traitors!
by Zentauria
Summary: That half-knowledge isn't the best thing in the world is no news. But sometimes, it can be downright dangerous. Why else should a seven year old boy turn his back on humankind, if not for a misunderstanding?


**That chapter hang around my computer for a while already, and now I'm feeling rather unable to produce a good sentence for a certain other story *cough*, I decided to post this one instead. I'm going to add another chapter or two, but not so fast, I guess. Destiny apparently hates me, and likewise.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inazuma Eleven, the stuff related to it (except for some merchandise, that I do own) and I do not earn money with this story.**

* * *

A seven-year-old boy stood in his room. His feelings were a whirlwind of anger, sadness and incomprehension. What had happened to his family, his friends? What had happened to _him_?

He hit the wall in frustration. Almost invisible in the bright room, a purple light started to spread from the point the small fist had hit. The wallpaper tore apart and cracks developed on the concrete beneath it.

The boy flinched. There was it again – the energy which was the cause of his misery. Since he defended one of his friends against a bully from fifth grade, it kept appearing. Sure, it saved him that day, when the fifth grader started to beat him, but now, he wished it would just vanish. It only made his life going downhill.

Suddenly, the door swung open and a woman entered the room. "Saryuu, are you alright?" Her eyes grew wide as soon as she noticed the wall.

The kid named Saryuu hastily put his hands into his pockets, as if that would reverse the cracks. Guilt and shame were written on his face. "I'm sorry, mum", he muttered and looked away.

"Oh dear!" The woman sighed. "Your father won't appreciate that."

"Don't tell him!", Saryuu yelled, panic flickering in his purple eyes. A moment later, he calmed down and added quietly: "Please. He will lock me into the closet again."

"Saryuu, you can't hide these cracks."

"I can! Look!" The kid dashed to the opposite side of the room. "I'll just pin a poster over it and..." He trailed off as he took said poster from the wall and another cracked part appeared behind it. Demoralized, he dropped the paper and stared at his feet, his eyes began to water. "Mum, I... I'm scared."

His mother stepped up and squatted next to her trembling son. "Sh! Everything will be alright! You will learn to control it."

No hug, no petting, no caressing. Saryuu couldn't even remember how it feels to be touched. He understood though. He would be careful as well if he would meet someone who accidently blows things up and breaks solid walls with bare hands.

The kid wiped his teary eyes with his sleeve. He didn't want to cry. It wasn't manly, and it blurs his vision. And he knew, if his senses are restricted, the likeness of another incident rises.

His mother got up and pinned the poster to the wall again. She didn't make any further comment about the cracks, she just said: "You should go to bed, Saryuu. You have school tomorrow."

"I don't want to go to school, mum! It's boring and the other kids are mean!"

The woman smiled indulgently. "I know. When I was around your age, I also thought school was boring and I wanted to play with my friends instead. But it is important to..."

"You don't understand!", the white-haired kid protested. "It's not because I want to play! It's because I already know everything!"

"It's fine, Saryuu, I understand. Now, go to bed."

His mothers voice was soft and gentle, but the boy became angry. Adults! Why do they always think they know better? Even if she was his mother, she didn't understand at all! Why wasn't she just _listening_ to him?

_That is the Evan kid?_

_Yes. He already looks like a total weirdo!_

_I've heard he is one of the unwanted children._

_I bet his parents don't love him!_

Saryuu could almost hear his classmates gossiping about him in his mind. They always did it when they thought he was too far away to eavesdrop. And the odd thing was: They were right about it. He usually _was _too far away. But their voices reached him anyway.

He heard it often enough, that unwanted-thingy. He couldn't understand it, but he could understand it was bad.

They were mistaken. He wasn't unwanted, and his parents loved him. It just had to be this way, and he couldn't be wrong. He couldn't. Right?

But he never heard about a kid locked into a closet by his or her father. Then again, none of them had the power he had. They didn't have to learn how to control it.

Saryuu believed that his father locked him up as some kind of training. That's what his parents told him. But it didn't help him, not a little tiny bit. It just scared him, and fear made it worse. His parents were constantly buying new closets. _Until you learn to control your fear._

The small body shivered and Saryuu's anger disappeared. He looked up to his mother with pleading eyes. "Will you sing a bedtime song for me? The one with the moon and his star sheep?"

The woman smiled. "Of course, sunshine. But..."

She didn't have to end her sentence, Saryuu knew what she meant. It was like some kind of ritual between them. He crawled into bed obediently and his mother switched off the light. At the same time, a much smaller light near Saryuu's bed switched on automatically, so the room wouldn't go dark completely like the closet. The kid was much more comfortable this way.

His mother sat down on the bed and pleasant anticipation flashed through her son's body. He always loved it to hear his mother sing for him, even though he was seven already.

But even her song couldn't calm him down today. Even when she was long gone, Saryuu was still wide awake and anxious. He hadn't covered the cracks yet. But he ran out of posters.

The little boy decided to stand up and try to find something. But when he quietly entered the hallway, he was surprised to find the door to the living room opened a crack and light shining from it. Curiously, he tiptoed his way through the apartment and positioned himself next to the door.

"Please, Rick!" His mother... was she crying? "We can't just turn him in!"

"We have to, Miyu. The next test... We can't hide him anymore."

"But they will..." A sniff. Saryuu wanted to step into the room and comfort his mother, but he knew how his parents react when they catch him outside of his bed at this time of day. But he couldn't return to his room either, his bare feet were glued to the ground beneath them.

"They won't. He is a good child, there is no reason for that." The voice of his father sounded worn out, as if he wouldn't believe his own words. Saryuu didn't like it. Even if Richard Evan could be quite scary sometimes, he was still his father and Saryuu loved him. He couldn't stand hearing him so torn apart. "I'm sure they will offer him a good education which matches his skills. He can do so much good!"

Another sniff. "Really?"

"Definitely!"

Saryuu could tell that none of them was convinced. What were they talking about anyway? They couldn't possibly mean _him_, could they? His parents would never give him away, right?

_Weirdo._

_Unwanted._

_They don't love him._

_THAT'S NOT TRUE!_

Finally, the small legs unfroze. Tears dropped. As fast as his feet could carry him, Saryuu dashed back to his room and shoved the door shut. Alone in the almost complete darkness, the little body trembling from fear and sudden cold, he crawled under his blanket and cried, cried like a starving kitten. "That's not true..."

* * *

"Good morning, Saryuu!"

"Hmm?" The boy in question stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Morning, Kouji!"

His only friend sprinted up to him, his school bag bouncing up and down, just like his glasses.

"Late as always!", Saryuu teased and his friend grinned.

"As if you'd be any better! Come on!" And whoosh, he was on the run again.

"Hey, wait up!", Saryuu shouted after him and accelerated. He knew he could outrun his comrade anytime, but he wasn't fond of setting a foot onto school grounds earlier than absolutely necessary. Actually, he'd love not stepping through the gate at all, but he wouldn't deign his classmates the victorious feeling of routing him out. Plus, he was worried about Kouji. His friend never told him, but Saryuu knew that the very moment he turns away, the boy with the sand-colored hair gets bullied himself. He couldn't let him down, not his one and only friend. So he sped up.

The white-haired was the first to reach the gate, like always. Other pupils passed by and Saryuu had quite an effort to catch the gaze of his friend.

"You're amazing, Saryuu!", Kouji panted. "You didn't even break a sweat! You should run Marathon!"

"As if they'd let me!", the addressed one laughed. "But you're getting faster yourself, you know? If you keep this up, we will be on equal terms someday!"

"Maybe..." The other boy's expression turned deadly serious and he grabbed his friend's hands. "Saryuu, there is something I have to tell you."

Saryuu flinched. It sounded like another bad news, and if that was the case, he was sure he wouldn't be able to take it. Could it be possible that his only friend planned to leave him?

"What?", he asked with shaking voice.

"We can't talk about it here. We need to find a place were no one would hear..." The school bell announcing the beginning of the lesson cut Kouji off and the boys jolted.

"Ueda-sensei is going to kill us", Saryuu stated.

"He is _so_ going to kill us!", Kouji agreed and, like on a silent command, the two kids rocketed towards the building.

* * *

Saryuu slept during maths, the nightly crying fit took its toll on him. His teacher obviously disliked it, as the white-haired woke from a ruler persistently hammering on his head.

"Evan-kun." Poison dripped from the teacher's voice. Saryuu yawned. "What is six multiplied by twenty?"

"One hundred and twenty", the student mumbled half-asleep and a second later, he already passed out again, leaving a maths teacher dumbstruck. It was a trick question, meant to shock bad-mannered pupils. The kids hadn't multiplied with double-digit numbers yet, but this particular one calculated it practically asleep. Maybe the rumors were true, after all – the rumors that Saryuu Evan was an unreported Second Stage Child. Or maybe he was just talented. Anyway, he should call the parents to have a DNA test carried out, just to be sure.

* * *

Scarcely when the lunch break began, Kouji grabbed Saryuu's wrist and pulled him out of the classroom and through the hallway to the last corner of the farthest end of the school. Saryuu wailed all the way that they'd get Hayashi-rice that day and the two of them were going to miss it, but he felt the seriousness in his friend and allowed him to take the lead nonetheless.

When Kouji was sure no one would be inside hearing range, Saryuu already sat down on the floor, and the glasses wearer followed his example. Then, there was a dead silence.

"What is it what you want to tell me?" Saryuu couldn't bear it any longer. All this trouble and then his friend was tongue-tied.

Kouji shifted a bit. "Saryuu? You know you are an SSC, right?"

"A what?" The white-haired cocked his head, thinking hard. He was pretty sure he heard that already somewhere.

"A Second Stage Child", Kouji explained. "A child with superpowers."

That was the moment Saryuu's brain clicked. Yes, he heard that word, or those words. On the radio, on TV. But his parents always changed the channel instantly, so he was rather uninformed.

"Is that bad?", he asked curiously.

"It's not bad." Saryuu sighed in relief, but Kouji wasn't done yet. "It's horribly awful."

"Really?!"

"Really. It is said that SSC are a danger to humankind. Intelligent, athletic and destructive, and short-lived on top. El Dorado recently passed a law to turn every SSC in to them for a so called 'special treatment', but it is an open secret that they... they..."

Kouji's voice broke off and gave Saryuu time to take everything in. He was a Second Stage Child? Superpowers? Intelligent, athletic, destructive? Well, bored to death in class? Check! Best pupil in P.E.? Check! Blowing up closets and cracking walls? Check! Radiating purple light? Check! Hearing gossip from far? Check! Quite definite result.

"But why are you still with me? I mean, you know I'm dangerous..."

Kouji inhaled deeply. "Because I am a Second Stage Child as well. I thought... you and me, we should stick together."

Saryuu's eyes grew wide. "You are...", he stuttered. "But you are..."

"Weaker?" With Saryuu unable to create a complete senseful sentence, Kouji had no choice but to guess. "Yes, I am. Even among SSC are different levels, I think."

The boys fell silent, both of them riding their own train of thoughts. They winced when suddenly a girl's voice sounded: "Oh, there you are! Are you not hungry? If so, can I have your share?"

Kouji hit the wall with the back of his head while Saryuu jumped to his feet, literally. The girl's face, smiling before, changed into a frown, something telling her she just witnessed a physically impossible movement.

"Luna-chan!" Saryuu sighed in relief. For one thing because Luna wasn't one of the gossip sisters, for another because he hadn't blown her up. "What a start!"

"How much did you hear?", Kouji asked warily and stood up. Luna just laughed and waved around.

"What are you, El Dorado Undercover? I don't think boys have interesting topics to hash out, I just came here the very second."

Saryuu could tell it wasn't a lie. How he could he wasn't sure, but it didn't matter to him. "No, you can't have our share. After all, we don't want our class cutie to become fat and round, right, Kouji?" The white-haired pulled his friend to his feet. "But thanks for getting it for us! Hayashi-rice, here I come!" And with that, the two of them zoomed off, leaving a slightly pink-faced girl behind.

* * *

"Mum! Dad! I'm home!"

"Saryuu!" His mother came out of the living room, half running, half tripping. She cried and hugged her son, which surprised the boy to the max. It's been so long... Why now all of a sudden?

"Mum?", he asked. "What's the matter?"

She didn't answer, just cried and cried. Saryuu gazed over her shoulder to his father in the door frame, silently seeking help. The man just shook his head bleakly, then he stepped up and knelt down next to his family members, wrapping his arms around the both of them.

It made Saryuu wanting to cry as well. "What is going on?", he asked, his voice shaky. "It feels like a farewell." The very moment he said that, it dawned on him. His sadness disappeared, anger and disappointment were taking its place. He twisted himself free from his parents and glared at them with eyes full of reproach, tears glittering in them. "You're going to turn me in! You love El Dorado more than me! Of course you do, who could love such a dreadful child?"

"Saryuu...", his shocked mother began, but Saryuu wasn't interested in what she had to say.

"You betrayed me!", he concluded and turned around to run away. His view was blurry and he wiped his eyes, not noticing he was heading right towards the closed front door. But it didn't even matter, the door just flew off its hinges when he neared. In an instance, the kid was outside.

* * *

**Kouji is Giris, just in case. (No, I have no idea about his real name, and I'm pretty sure no one does, so I just invented one.)  
Luna is an OC, but people who are expecting a pairing now are at the wrong address. No romance planned here.**


End file.
